My name is Bulgarea Candin Ștefan. This website started with my name after I began to inquire what my name means.
I realized that I had no idea, except that I had some vague idea about Saint Stephen.
So I started digging. I went through name dictionaries, talked with my father, read up on onomastics, and ran into more contradicting explanations than I expected.
Bulgarea
Bulgarea’s my last name, and for a long time. My father was born in Galda de Sus, a village in Alba County, Romania. There are 5 families in Galda de Sus with the name Bulgaria, with no family ties between them. This is quite a weird and strange fact. How is this possible for an unusual name in a small village, and the families with this name are not related to each other?
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, there were several waves of Bulgarians (people from the country south of Romania) who crossed the Danube and settled in Oltenia and Transylvania.
This explains the lack of family connections between the families with the family name Bulgaria in Galda de Sus.
Note: my grandparents from my father’s side were named Bulgaria, but my father and I bore the name of Bulgarea. When my father was born (on June 19, 1951), his parents went to register the birth and obtain a birth certificate on June 22. The civil registrar at the town hall registered the date of birth on June 22 and made another typo. Instead of Bulgaria, the civil registrar wrote Bulgarea.
Candin
At first, I learned that Candin is rooted in the Latin word ”candidus,” which means ”sincere” or ”honest.” However, Candin is from the Moți communities in the Apuseni Mountains, Alba County.
Ștefan
Ștefan is the first ”normal„ name that I have. Ștefan is from the Greek “Stephanos,” which means “crown.” In Romania, Ștefan has stayed closely linked to Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr as well as to the Moldovian ruler, Ștefan cel Mare.
So yes, I have three names, with three completely different stories.
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